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Josh Freeman And The FBI

January 13th, 2020

“What has happened to my agency?”

No, this isn’t about a former Bucs quarterback getting caught in a sting.

This is a where-are-they-now kinda story:

It appears former Bucs leaky, sleepy quarterback Josh Freeman was at a recent FBI job fair held in the bureau’s Kansas City field office for former athletes interested in fighting crime. Freeman grew up about 20 minutes south of there.

Freeman, a former first-round pick of the Bucs in 2009 out of Kansas State, was always shrouded in mystery.

It was a mystery why the Bucs drafted him in the first place, but in his first full season he damn near guided the Bucs to the playoffs with a 10-6 record.

After that, Freeman fell apart and his career crumbled after a series of bizarre and very public episodes that included being habitually late to both his football camp as well as to both practices and scheduled Bucs events. An offseason radio appearance before the 2013 season is still talked about today for its weirdness from Freeman, which fueled rampant speculation and stoked the rumor mills.

During the 2012 season, Freeman headed to Orlando for a BSPN photoshoot where he posed as notorious alleged pedophile Michael Jackson, which did not go over well within the walls of One Buc Palace. At all.

His feuding with former Bucs commander Greg Schiano, which included thousands of dollars of fines for repeated team violations, was the final straw.

Freeman appeared in two more NFL games after he left the Bucs, both starts, one in Minnesota and the other with Indianapolis. Then he had a cup of coffee with multimple teams over a short period of time that included a stint with the Brooklyn Bolts of the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL).

Freeman’s career ended after he retired from football weeks after signing a two-year contract with the Montreal Alouettes in 2018.

With the Bucs, Freeman was so protected by the team and shielded from just about everyone, so no one really knew him. One was lucky to just be able to say “Hi” to him without Freeman being hustled off a practice field or escorted through a doorway.

Among local media, Joe knows of only two people who remotely knew Freeman away from One Buc Palace. One was the late, great Steve Duemig. Even then, Duemig rarely spoke with Freeman away from Duemig’s radio show. Joe remembers Duemig telling him the last time he spoke with Freeman was a chance encounter in a Las Vegas casino.

Never before and not since has Joe seen a team keep a player hidden in the shadows like the Bucs did Freeman. In retrospect, the protection of Freeman seemed so suffocating, Joe has to wonder what the team was hiding?

Freeman didn’t come across like he would be an FBI agent or an employee of the agency in any way. CIA, maybe, because he was so secretive.

On the FBI’s jobs LinkedIn page, there is a post about a recent FBI job fair for former athletes and the picture used highlights Freeman wearing an FBI bulletproof vest.

Last year, the FBI Kansas City Field Office welcomed former NFL players through a partnership with @AscendingAthletes to talk about future careers with the Bureau. The athletes had a chance to examine evidence and blood spatter, tour the command post, and gun vault, operate a remote-controlled bomb robot and more. #FBIJobs

Given the FBI’s controversies in recent decades (wiretapping of the 60s, covering for the mob, trying to frame Richard Jewell, and many other incidents) perhaps someone with the Bureau was impressed by how Freeman tried to pin the leak of a drug test result on his coach and thought Freeman was worthy hiring to use in some form of domestic surveillance?

FAMOUS is already working on his craft because of the will to be great!! He will cut that turnover rate to 15 interceptions and 36 TD’s. Another year in this system should provide him a lot more comfort within this system!! All we need to do is keep adding talent to this team and it will be THE YEAR OF THE BUCS 2020!!

I think the Michael Jackson thing was unfair. For whatever reason, society gave him a pass until that documentary came out. A lot of people thought he was framed, and when Jackson died people pretended like it never even happened, or excused it because of his own childhood. So if you’re mad at Freeman, you should be more mad at BSPN and every other news outlet that glorified Jackson.

But yeah, Freeman seemed to have some issues and it’s a shame it didn’t work out. Such a weird time in Bucs history

Freeman’s downfall was being drafted by Raheem. Raheem was partying as much as the players, it was a terrible environment to develop a young QB/team. Unfortunately Freeman drank too much of his own kool aid became impossible to coach or provide feedback. Tough lesson….as the saying goes…the NFL stands for Not For Long.

I see him occasionally at the Harbour Island Athletic Club, he still looks the part of an NFL QB. Friendly guy….shame it didn’t work out.

“I work hard…nobody works harder than I do…. I play best relaxed and being myself”. Some things never change. And he first praised the Lord for his success. Seems to be some disconnect between the words on his lips, his heart, and his actions…you think?

Too bad pro sports teams aren’t required to provide full transparency to the public since they are so heavily dependent on public tax $$$$. Also in relation to Stadium plumbing, why not come up with a plan where if the team performs well then tax dollars contributions increase for the stadium but if the team doesn’t do well then it’s on the team to pay more for their own stadiums. This would create more accountability for the owners to put a winning product on the field.

i know for a fact the some of the south tampa alleged stuff is true, and I hope the bucs do not draft jordan love who seems like a freeman clone; however if he has turned is life around and is going to be an FBI agent then awesome for freeman and his future and his service

Soo the whole article was about taking shots at the FBI and Freeman? Are you done with the drama reporting now? Good for him he is moving on with his life and doing something worth reporting. Kinda dumb taking shots at the FBI over something in the 60’s damn you are old.

I happen to know for most of my life the person who owns the operation : GHI Reptiles in North Palm Beach where I am from.
Josh Freeman back in the day was a “good” customer. He would show up impaired when he came over to pick up his python. Very impaired and not on drink.

I’d take Winston over FreeWee any day. Winston is at least a true team guy unlike Freewee who will throw the whole team under the bus(Espn Interview when he got benched and the leak) if he dont get what he wants.

I like the drama and all these sideways talking fans do too, that’s why they read your articles everyday (lol).

But I love, even more, the off-the-field stories about Bucs players from yesteryear. Especially when they are about a failed top draft pick who was doing bad things or causing trouble. It brings some sense to the years and years of failure. Keep it up.

Framing Richard Jewel didn’t happen in the 60s, and FBI participation in the intelligence community corruption against the current administration didn’t take place in the 60s. But whatever makes you feel better.